Paulo Jorge Soares Gomes (born 16 June 1980), known as Paulo Jorge, is a Portuguese retired professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

, currently

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

S.C. Braga B Sporting Clube de Braga B, commonly known as Sporting de Braga B or just Braga B, is a Portuguese association football, football team. It is the reserve team of S.C. Braga. Reserve teams in Portugal play in the same league system as the senior te ...

. He played until the age of 29 with Braga, appearing in 166 official matches over seven

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

seasons. He finished his 16-year senior career in

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

Club career

Born in Braga, Paulo Jorge played for hometown club S.C. Braga for the vast majority of his career, which he began as a professional in the 2002–03 season. From his early

debut, he was awarded team captaincy. Although a defensive player, Paulo Jorge scored five league goals in 2006–07 to help the team finish fourth, as well as

two 2 (two) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3. It is the smallest and only even prime number. Because it forms the basis of a duality, it has religious and spiritual significance in many cultur ...

in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

against A.C. ChievoVerona and

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

. In 2008–09, he was absent for the vast majority of the matches due to several surgeries to repair a foot ailment; his return only took place on 1 May 2009 against Rio Ave FC (0–0), and it was the sole appearance he made during the campaign. On 10 June 2009, the board of APOEL FC announced the signing of Paulo Jorge on a two-year deal. In his

first year A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. Ara ...

, he won the Cypriot Super Cup and took part in three group stage games in their first participation in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

. On 12 May 2011, after helping APOEL win the

national championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

, the 31-year-old Paulo Jorge renewed his contract for another year. The following campaign, he featured in nine Champions League matches in the side's surprising run to the quarter-finals. On 13 May 2012, Paulo Jorge signed a two-year contract with another team in the country, Anorthosis Famagusta FC. He retired at the age of 35, after one season with Doxa Katokopias FC. Paulo Jorge returned to APOEL on 22 March 2018, as assistant manager under compatriot

Bruno Baltazar Bruno Miguel Nunes Baltazar (born 6 July 1977) is a Portuguese retired Association football, footballer who played as a central defender, currently Manager (association football), manager of Rochester New York FC in MLS Next Pro. Playing career ...

Club statistics

Honours

APOEL * Cypriot First Division:

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

* Cypriot Super Cup: 2009, 2011

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Paulo Jorge 1980 births Living people Sportspeople from Braga Portuguese footballers Association football defenders Primeira Liga players Segunda Divisão players S.C. Braga B players S.C. Braga players Cypriot First Division players APOEL FC players Anorthosis Famagusta F.C. players Doxa Katokopias FC players Portugal youth international footballers Portuguese expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Portuguese football managers